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Barbara Nessim
Keeping your work fresh over a long career
by Anne Telford

CA:You’ve worked in many creative media. What guidelines
would you suggest to someone who has tired of one art medium, and wants
to explore a new one?

Nessim: Make an effort to
always be trying something new. Go to a class where they emphasize
exploration in different mediums. Use social time with artist friends to
work together doing something interesting work-wise. When you are in an
art supply store pick up a small set of something completely different
to try like woodcutting tools that you can use on linoleum blocks. It is
so physically different than painting, drawing or working on the
computer that you are sure to be engaged. It may feel uncomfortable at
first, which is a good thing, but you will be challenged even if you
have done it before in your younger years. It will feel different this
time around and perhaps change, even in a small way, the direction
you’ve been working in for years. Explore other digital options if you
are “comfortable” in one area. Wander through others artists’ work on
Facebook that have friend[ed] you. I have come across such interesting
work by artists I don’t know and always write a message to that artist
about it. Something I would like to try is video. I have no idea of how I
will be using it, but, with all the “ease of use” cameras around, it
will stimulate, inspire and stretch my imagination. I have been thinking
about it for a while now. The best part is there are so many web uses for video that I’m sure I will find my way to use it in an artwork or in
a commercial venue.CA:What advice would you give a beginning illustrator, in terms of archiving their work?

Nessim:
Any artist/illustrator working today is lucky to have the digital tools
available to catalog their work from the very beginning of their
career. Archiving is such a big subject and artists are all so
individual that there isn’t one “right” way of archiving or keeping
track of your work. So consider this answer/suggestion a little snapshot
of how I see this subject after 50 years of creating art. I’m fairly
organized now but I was not always orderly. One day I realized after
fifteen years of creating and making piles of work, books and magazines,
also stuff I couldn’t bear to throw away, I was going to “drown” in my
own mess. The funny thing is that I always thought I was “organized.” I
even created a work in 1967 titled Disorganized Organization Organized,
a 40" × 40" silk-screen on stretched canvas sold at one of the first
NYC design stores, Scarabeaus, owned by George Beylerian.

Labels organized by image and size.

It may
be hard to imagine that you will want to see the particular work you
are creating at the moment ten years from now but, trust me, you will—especially if you like it. And if it is something that is
not to your liking then you have to decide if it will go in the trash.
There are times when you don’t like a piece you are working on and you
put it aside and somehow stumble upon it a year later; you may look at
it and suddenly like it and wonder why you felt so negative about it. I
call these my transition pieces, where it brings me to another point of
view of creating. Each transition is different and in a way, an artwork
all to itself. Every artist will devise his or her own way of keeping
track of his or her work and it has to be a conscious decision to do so.

CA:How did you arrive at the system that you use to archive and store your work?

Nessim:
There are several things to consider when embarking on the lifelong
task of archiving your work. I say “task” because you have to view it as
a necessary undertaking. First you have to arrive at a system. For
example: My first attempt at organizing in the ’70s was to buy two good
secondhand filing cabinets, and file folders that were different colors.
Blue files were for illustration jobs, green for speaking, yellow for
writing, purple for fine art shows, beige for friends and red for taxes.
I have since transferred this color system to my computer. I have
folding sawhorses that I bought at Ikea years ago and put half-inch
Gatorboard foam tops on them to make impromptu tables. I also have oak
and white metal flat files, which are the most important furniture I own
besides my drawing table. I bought oak years ago but now would only
consider metal. Every flat file in my studio sits on a specially
constructed wooden frame with heavy-duty rubber wheels. One group is
stacked with five files each with five drawers. There are four flat
files, two side-by-side I use as a high table with a white Formica top.
The flat files are labeled according to the years the artworks in them
were created. Each artwork has been scanned at 300 DPI and stored in
folders on the computer according to the year and drawer they are in.
The artworks are labeled according to the year, are given a number and
coded as to whether it is fine art or illustration art. The penciled
identifying code in the back of each work may look like this:
FA-1977-34. They are stored, in groups, in archival plastic bags and
taped shut. If you ever have a flood, which I did, they have a better
chance of being protected and surviving.

Tables made with collapsible sawhorses and Gatorfoam allow for mobility in a changing workplace—to get the most from where you are working.

If I were starting out
today I would investigate software available that utilizes other
universal systems that museums use. The more universal the system the
easier it will be for museums like the Norman Rockwell Museum to receive
your work for inclusion in their collection. The NRM has recently
opened The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies in Stockbridge,
the nation’s first research institute devoted to the art of illustration.
It states, “Visual Culture Studies is the vibrant area of emerging
scholarship that explores the impact of imagery in shaping societal
conceptions and aspirations across broad cultural categories.” Explore
the site to find out more about this important addition to the field of
illustration. If you have any questions about archiving, please e-mail
me at barbaranessim@gmail.com and I will be happy to help with whatever I
know. There is so much more to say. I could write a book on this
subject. CA

Anne TelfordAfter fourteen years as the founding managing editor of CA, Anne Telford moved to the position of editor-at-large when she relocated to her hometown, La Jolla, CA. An avid traveler, she expanded CA’s international coverage and developed the magazine’s Fresh section. Anne received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin where she indulged her taste for Tex-Mex food, independent film and the blues. Her first job in journalism was as an assistant editor at Texas Monthly. Anne was a founding board member of the Illustration Conference and is a current board member of Watershed Media, an organization that produces action-oriented, visually dynamic communication projects to influence the transition to a green society. Anne is a published poet and photographer with credits ranging from Émigré, Blur and Step Inside Design magazines, to the Portland Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Allworth Press and Chronicle Books, among others.